World Cup 2019: Fans lash out on Twitter for India’s opener being delayed
Before playing India, South Africa has already played two matches and lost both of them.
The ICC World Cup will turn a week old on Wednesday when Team Indian will take the field for their first time in the tournament. Virat Kohli’s men will play South Africa in their opening game to be held at Ageas Bowl, Southampton, and it will be the eighth match of the competition. South Africa have already played two matches and lost both of them, including to Bangladesh.
While the excitement factor has started building up in the World Cup, especially after Bangladesh stunned the Proteas by 21 runs and Pakistan humbled England by 14 runs after a poor opening game against the West Indies, the wait for India has become even more. Fans have become impatient to see their favourite stars in blue take on the opponents. India, of all teams, though have the least gap between matches as they will play their nine league games between June 5 and July 6.
That the fans were running out of patience was visible on the social media where they came up with all sorts of jokes to mock Team India’s schedule. Apart from the West Indies, Australia and Bangladesh, all other teams will complete two games when Kohli goes out for the toss with Faf du Plessis on Wednesday. This will be second instance when India will be kicking off their World Cup campaign against the Proteas in the cricket World Cup. They had played their first match in the 1999 World Cup in Hove and South Africa had won on that occasion by 4 wickets.
India last played a match almost a week ago
India, in fact, hasn’t played a game since May 28 when they took on Bangladesh in their second warm-up game in Cardiff. The main reason for India’s delayed schedule is the recommendation of the Lodha Committee that necessitates a 15-day gap between two major assignments. Since the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 was set to finish on May 19, so a 15-day gap meant India could only play their first match in the World Cup after June 3.
Their opening game was initially scheduled on June 2 against South Africa but it was rescheduled after the BCCI asked the ICC to do so. However, the IPL later finished on May 12 as it started early because of the general elections but its schedule of June 5 was not changed.
Here are the reactions that the fans have come up with to mock India’s delayed schedule
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